How coaching works

You know that saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks"? Not technically true. In fact that is the brilliant thing about the human brain….they are highly plastic and therefore able to (indeed designed to) change and grow with us and our experiences.

Our brains are most plastic when we are children. We are constantly being exposed to new information and experiences and as a result we  are able learn, adapt and change very easily. 

This process is called neuroplasticity and whilst as we age the brain loses a little of its plasticity the main reason change doesn’t come as easily to us as adults is that we become more fixed in how we think!

Imagine you are in the woods, on a familiar walk, when you take a new pathway, somewhere you haven’t walked before. The first time you walk it you are experiencing something completely new. You’ll notice things about it because it is different. It might feel a bit strange. You will consciously walk that path and will have added a new option to your routes, expanded your options.

That is what is happening when we think a new thought or experience something new. We literally create a new neural pathway in our brain, one that wasn’t there before.

Now if we continue to walk that new pathway every day in the forest, over time it will no longer feel new or different. We will create a new way of walking through, one that we walk on autopilot, without even having out think about it.

The same with our brains. With every repetition of a thought or emotion, we reinforce a neural pathway, strengthen it and create a new way of being. Neuroplasticity is the ‘muscle building’ part of our brain. The things we think or do often we become stronger at. In fact the more we repeat a thought or an action, the sooner it becomes automatic, our autopilot, a part of us. 

We literally become what we think and do.

Which is why in life coaching you’ll work with your coach to look at which thoughts and actions are serving you. And which need to be reprogrammed to help you achieve your goals or create a more supportive and positive mindset.

In life coaching sessions I’ve seen clients realise for the first time that the reason they see themselves a certain way is because they’ve said it on repeat to themselves for 30 odd years. They’ve strengthened this thought so much that they have never even thought to question it.

Life coaching can help you identify where you have limited yourself, where you have got in your own way, where you could choose to expand your mind. And like choosing the new path in the forest, these changes can feel a bit strange, a bit difficult but working with a life coach like me, over time they will become second nature. You will literally become the change you wanted to see.

So whether you want to feel more confident, make a brave decision, change career, make relationship changes, work on your mindset or launch a business…… the change starts in your amazing brain. And EVERYONE can change - at any age - it is always possible. Thanks to the neuroplasticity of your brain. 

Emma is a life coach based in Tunbridge Wells.